Narrative Premise based on setting?

[Alan]

Hi,

I've come to understand how narrative premise works when based on character - and what sort of mechanics work for that.  However, I'm not clear on how narrative premise based on setting would world.

Can anyone give me an example of a game with narrative premise based on setting?  What kind of mechanics arrise from such a premise?

[Mike Holmes]

Never got completed to my knowledge, but it was fun to discuss:

The Kap

Has prettty much exactly the goal you're looking for.

Mike

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Alan,

Hero Wars is my top current choice for this answer. The conflicts faced by the players arise directly from social, magical, and geographical elements of the setting. When they begin, the characters may have personal goals, but they are "situated" in the setting-based conflicts and problems essentially as any other person in their culture would be. As play continues, the setting provides the pressues that "forge" characters into protagonists with unique Premise-answering-Profiles of their own.

Another good example, although it's not quite as focused a Narrativist design, is Castle Falkenstein. The Premise-y stuff (which I read to be issues of honor and the relationship of technology to statecraft) arise from the heavy Victorian Europe / fantasy elements of the setting, and characters are "situated" in that when they are defined.

Best,
Ron